Fragmentation study of isolated and nano-solvated biomolecules induced by collision with multiply charged ions and neutral particles

This thesis concerns a gas phase study of the fragmentation of bio-molecular systems induced by slow collisions with multiply charged ions (in the keV-region), alkali atoms and rare gases. The main objective was to study the physical processes involved in the dissociation of highly electronically excited systems. In order to elucidate the intrinsic properties of certain biomolecules (porphyrins and amino acids) we have performed experiments in the gas phase with isolated systems. The obtained results demonstrate the high stability of porphyrins after electron removal and attachment. Furthermore, a dependence of the fragmentation pattern produced by multiply charged ions on the isomeric structure of the alanine molecule has been shown. In a second part of the thesis, a strong influence of the environment of the biomolecule on the fragmentation channels, their modification and their new opening, has been clearly proven. This phenomenon occurs in the presence of other surrounding biomolecules (clusters of nucleobases) as well as for molecules of a solvent (molecules of water, methanol and acetonitrile) in which the biomolecule is embedded. In order to extend these studies to larger systems, a new experimental set-up, based on an electro-spray ion source combined with a quadrupole mass filter has been developed. Due to the successful tests and proposed improvements of the device future experiments will become available concerning the fragmentation of large charged and solvated bio-molecular systems induced by collision processes. (author)